A little Reading for Our Feathery and Godly Friends
by Jade-Queen of Fantasy
Summary: Max and the Flock and Percy and his gang mysteriously disappear and wake up in the Gods' throne room 5 years earlier. The books are sent there so they can read them. The future characters come from after Max and after Son of Neptune. Yes, it's been done before. Deal. No Mercy (Max/Percy) The chapters will switch between books. Thanks to Im-In-Love-With-PJO for that idea.
1. Chapter 1- Everything Falls into Place

**First fic, people. But I won't ask you to be nice. Flame if you must. **

**Begins right after Son of Neptune and right after Max. Completely disregards Fang, Angel, and Nevermore. I really didn't like those books. JP should have ended with Max. *sigh***

**Obviously: I don't own either PJO or MR. **

******************************************cookies are awesome***************************************************

Chapter 1: Everything **Falls **Into Place

**Max:**

Fang and I dove down, then folded our wings and dropped, kicking up sand beneath our feet.

"Angel…" I started to say, but I glanced around and realized she was nowhere to be seen.

I turned to Fang, but he was gone too. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness swept over me. Then the world spun and the ground came up to meet me…

**Angel: **

Max and Fang had just kissed, Gazzy, Iggy and Nudge were swimming, and it was a beautiful day. Everything was perfect.

_Wait! What was that?_

Something black swam across my vision. _I'm so tired_ I thought sleepily. _I think I'll lie down and take a nap..._

**Percy: **

As I walked out of the Senate House with one arm around Hazel and the other around Frank, the sky went dark. I tripped over something and blacked out before I even hit the ground. The last things I heard were Frank's grunt and Hazel's scream…

**Jason: **

I heard Piper utter a small cry and I whipped around in time to see her, Leo, and Annabeth collapse to the deck. I felt a sudden weakness spreading through me, and I fell forward and smacked the deck. My last thought was _I hope Piper's okay…_

**Clarisse: **

I stalked into the sword arena. Today it was my cabin against Hermes's. And I had a vendetta against the Stolls. They had tried to die my hair pink. _They are so going down. What?_ I saw the Stolls pass out in front of me, and suddenly felt woozy_._ I swayed and fell, sinking into blackness…

**Thalia: **

I was running with my fellow Huntresses, chasing down the wolves, when my stride began to falter. I fell behind and tripped into a tree, blacking out…

**Sorry about the short chapter. It's just the intro you know. I promise you more on the next one. **

**R&R? Please? With cookies on top?**


	2. Waking up, Introductions, and Book 1

**I've always written in first person, but I don't know if I can for this type of story so….yeah. Apologizing if I can't get it to work. **

**Read on…if you dare...**

**Disclaimer: Don't own PJO or MR. (But I'm planning on kidnapping Percy XD)**

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Chapter 2: Waking up, Introductions, and Book 1

**5 years in the past…**

**Third Personage: **

It was the day of the Winter Solstice and the throne room of the gods was filled with the gods' ceaseless chatter.

"Mother Rhea loved me best, Drama King!"

"No, she loved ME best!"

"Come on, Artemis."

"No."

"It can't be fun to never date!"

"Strength must always bow to wisdom!"

"Strength is better than wisdom!"

"….because someone pushed me off Olympus!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"Hermes, do you think we should take away Demeter's cereal?"

"Nope, we'd get blasted."

A light flashed brilliant white. And everyone went silent.

When it cleared a huge pile of people was spread all over the floor. They all began to groan, standing up and shaking others off them. Another flash of the blinding light and two stacks of books appeared in the center of the room with a note resting on top.

**Artemis:**

Apollo gingerly reached out and grabbed the note. He looked at it with a puzzled expression.

"Well?" I snapped."Read it."

"Okay little sis," Apollo replied easily and I hissed,

"Dear Flock, gods, and demigods,

Within these books is your future. We have determined that reading these will not change what happens, but it will make you all aware of each other. Demigods and flock announce who you are, full titles all of you. Flock, go first since there's less of you, and say one thing about yourselves. There is a charm on the books to keep them from being read out of order. Start with the Maximum Ride ones.

Have fun everyone!

Apollo and the Fates"

**Max:**

Well that was weird…

"Alrighty then. Hi everyone I'm Nudge. And I love sparkles and clothes, clothes are, like, the best thing in the world, I have this one really pre-mphh…"

Iggy clapped a hand over her mouth. "One thing, Nudge. I'm Iggy and I'm a blind pyro-cook."

"I'm the Gasman and I like to blow stuff up."

"I'm Angel, and I like to swim."

"I'm Total, and I like France."

"A talking dog!" a woman on a pink throne screeched

"Yes, now don't be rude."

"I love France too." the woman said.

"I'm Fang." Silence.

I frowned at Fang and stated "I'm Maximum Ride and all of us are avian-human hybrids."

"What do you mean?" chorused a dark-haired woman on a gray owl throne and a blonde, gray-eyed girl who was curled into the side of a boy with sea-green eyes and shaggy black hair.

I sighed,

"I mean this"

I motioned to the flock, stepped forward and spread my wings, almost fourteen feet of brown and white feathers. I could hear the rustling of feathers as they followed my lead, even Total. The crowd around us gasped. To head off the frantic questions I said,

"The books probably tell you why we have these. Now the demi-whoever need to introduce themselves."

I tucked my wings in, sat down and scooted back towards my flock.

**Percy: **

Holy Hades they have wings! I looked around. Everyone was still in a state of amazement. I might as well get this over with while they're still shocked.

"I'm Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, Praetor of Rome, and Hero of Olympus."

"You broke the oath!" Zeus immediately roared, his eyes sparking.

"So did you brother."Poseidon calmly replied, glancing pointedly at Thalia.

Zeus growled.

"Continue." Hera hastily said.

Annabeth slid out from under my arm, stood up and stated clearly,

"I'm Annabeth Chase, Architect of Olympus."

"Why would we need an architect?" Athena muttered to herself

"Thalia, Daughter of Zeus, and Lieutenant of Artemis."

"Zoe?" Artemis asked softly.

Thalia bowed her head, "She fought bravely milady."

Artemis nodded, a tear streaking down her face. "Thank you. Go on."

"Nico DiAngelo, Son of Hades"

"YOU…"

"No Zeus." Hera snapped sharply.

"Clarisse LaRue, Daughter of Ares"

Ares grinned evilly.

"I'm Conner…"

"I'm Travis…"

"And we're the Stolls, sons of Hermes."

"Hey that was my line!"

"No it was mine"

"Boys!" Piper shouted. "I'm Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite."

"Leo Valdez, Son of Hephaestus, Builder of the Argo II"

"I am Reyna, Daughter of Bellona, and Praetor of Rome"

The gods shifted uneasily.

"Frank Zhang, Son of Mars, and Descendant of Neptune"

"Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto."

"Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter, and Former Praetor of Rome"

"Okay I don't get what's going on. Are you like gods? Or what? I mean…" the girl called Nudge started to say.

"A demigod is half-mortal, half-god. The ones on the thrones are the Greek gods." the little girl called Angel replied, stopping Nudge from rambling.

"How does she know that?" I asked, stunned.

**Max:**

"She can read minds." I replied to the green-eyed boy, what's-his-name, Percy.

His mouth gaped, "What?"

"I can read minds, Percy" Angel said too sweetly, "I can control them too"

Percy and the other demigods looked wary. As well they should with that devil child here. _You don't mean that do you, Max? _I sighed and ruffled her hair. _No, I don't mean that, Ange._

"Well let's get started" a woman sitting on a pink throne said, "I'll read first."

"Okay" I said, "Fang, Iggy"

Together we pounced on Nudge and duct taped her mouth shut.

"Mpphhh!"

"Go ahead."

**Book POV:**

"**Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment,"** Aphrodite read

**Warning: If you dare to read this story, you become part of the Experiment. **

"Oooh…mysterious…" Conner whispered

**I know that sounds a little mysterious-**

"Haha, Conner you think like her." Travis laughed.

"No he doesn't" Angel said firmly.

Conner gulped.

**But it's all I can say right now. Max**

**Prologue**

**Congratulations. The fact that you're reading this means you've taken one giant step closer to surviving till your next birthday. Yes, you,**

"Who me?" Apollo asked

"Shut up" Artemis groaned

**standing there leafing through these pages. **

"See Apollo she means me." Aphrodite gleefully exclaimed

_**Do not put this book down. **_**I'm dead serious-your life could depend on it. **

"Wow, Max lighten up." Iggy smirked

**This is my story, the story of my family, but it could just as easily be your story too. We're all in this together; **

"We're all in this together…" Iggy, Gazzy, Conner, and Travis started to sing.

"No High School Musical!" Thalia shouted and zapped them with lightning.

Cue the hysterical laughter from Apollo and Hermes.

**trust me on that. **

"Okay Max I trust you." Angel smiled.

**I've never done anything like this so I'm just going to jump in, and you try to keep up. **

"I can't keep up Max! You're going too fast!" Iggy squealed

*Smack*

Everyone laughed.

**Okay. I'm Max.**

"No!" Travis gasped "We had no idea"

*Smack*

Again with the laughter.

**I'm fourteen. I live with my family, who are five kids not related to me by blood, but still totally my family.**

**We're-well, we're kind of amazing. **

"Kind of full of yourself aren't you?" Nico asked

**Not to sound too full of myself, **

"Even though you, like, totally, do, and by the…"

"Duct tape" Gazzy, Iggy, and the Stolls shrieked.

"This is not good." Clarisse said

"The Stolls've been cloned!" Percy shouted horrified

**but we're like nothing you've ever seen before. **

**Basically, we're pretty cool, nice, smart- **

"Wow" Percy said "Stuck up much?"

Fang had to hold Max back.

**but not "average" in anyway. The six of us-me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel-were made on purpose, by the sickest, most horrible "scientists" you could possibly imagine. They created us as an experiment. **

"Ouch" Piper and Annabeth winced.

**An experiment where we ended up only 98 percent human. That other 2 percent has had a big impact, let me tell you. **

**We grew up in a science lab/prison called the School, in cages, like lab rats. **

"That's horrible" Thalia cried

And she wasn't alone, as the room filled with the shouts of astonishment.

**It's pretty amazing we can think or speak at all. But we can-and so much more. **

"Again with the self-importance," Conner said halfheartedly

**There was one other School experiment that made it past infancy. Part human, part wolf-all predator: They're called Erasers. **

"What...?"

"Shush"

**They're tough, smart, and hard to control. They look human…but when they want to, they are capable of morphing into wolf men, complete with fur, fangs, and claws. The School uses them as guards, police-executioners. **

The flock shuddered.

**To them we're six moving targets—prey smart enough to be a fun challenge. Basically they want to rip our throats out. And make sure the world never finds out about us.**

"Well, we have…" Leo said.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Annabeth replied

**But I'm not lying down just yet. I'm telling **_**you,**_** right? This story could be about you—or your children. If not today, then soon. So please, please take this seriously. I'm risking everything that matters by telling you—but you need to know.**

**Keep reading—don't let anyone stop you.**

**-Max. And my family: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel**

**Welcome to our nightmare. **

"You're so morbid, Max." Thalia said, "Just like Death-Breath over there."

"I'm not morbid!" Nico said indignantly

"Yeah you are."

"Am not"

"Are too"

"Am…"

"Who wants to read next?" Aphrodite interjected

"I will" Angel said

"Hey Max?" she continued, rifling through the pages, "I think this is a book entirely based on your thoughts."

Silence.

"Holy [insert swear word of your choice here]."

"Oooooh, Max we get to see all of your thoughts…" Iggy chuckled

"Shut up, Ig."

**Part 1 Flock Fright**

**Chapter 1**

**The funny thing about facing imminent death is that it really snaps everything else into perspective. Take right now, for instance.**

"What?"

**Run! Come on, run! You know you can do it.**

**I gulped deep lungfuls of air. My brain was on hyper-drive;**

"You're dreaming. Aren't you Max?" Angel asked

"Yeah, I guess." Max replied

**I was racing for my life. My one goal was to escape. **

"Who wouldn't be trying to?" Clarisse asked

**Nothing else mattered. **

"Well obviously." Leo muttered

**My arms being scratched to ribbons by a briar I'd run through? No biggie.**

**My bare feet hitting every sharp rock, rough root, pointed stick? Not a problem.**

**My lungs aching for air? I could deal.**

Hazel winced.

**As long as I could put as much distance as possible between me and the Erasers.**

**Yeah, Erasers. Mutants: half-men, half-wolves, usually armed, always bloodthirsty. Right now they were after me.**

"They sound wonderful" Conner said

**See? That snaps everything into perspective.**

"It should" Thalia muttered

**Run. You're faster than they are. You can outrun anyone.**

**I'd never been this far from the School before. I was totally lost. Still, my arms pumped by my sides, my feet crashed through the underbrush, my eyes scanned ahead anxiously through the half-light. I could outrun them. I could find a clearing with enough space for me to-**

"To what?" Travis and Conner wailed "Tell us, Max tell us!"

"Idiots." Thalia and Max said in unison, and then glanced surprised at each other.

"Oh, crap! Another Max!" Gazzy and Iggy shouted.

**Oh, no. Oh, no. The unearthly baying of bloodhounds on the scent wailed through the trees, and I felt sick. I could outrun men-all of us could, even Angel, and she's only six. **

"Yes, yes I can." Angel said proudly

**But none of us could outrun a big dog.**

"Why not?" Annabeth asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"We just can't." Max shrugged, "No idea why."

**Dogs, dogs, go away, let me live another day.**

"Rain, rain…"

"No singing!"

**They were getting closer. Dim light filtered in through the woods in front of me-a clearing? Please, please… a clearing could save me.**

"How…?"

"You'll see."

**I burst through the trees, chest heaving, a thin sheen of cold sweat on my skin.**

"Eeeww." Aphrodite wrinkled her nose

**Yes!**

"Yay!" the Stolls, Iggy, and Gazzy cheered

**No-oh, no!**

"No"

**I skidded to a halt, my arms waving, my feet backpedaling in the rocky dirt.**

**It wasn't a clearing. In front of me was a cliff, a sheer face of rock that dropped to an unseeable floor hundreds of feet below.**

"Ouch" said Jason and Leo

**In back of me were woods filled with drooling bloodhounds and psycho Erasers with guns.**

**Both options stank.**

"Like the inside of Percy's gym locker!"

"What?"

**The dogs were yelping excitedly-they'd found their prey: moi.**

"You speak French!"

"Um…not really, no."

**I looked over the deadly drop.**

**There was no choice, really. If you were me, you'd have done the same thing.**

**I closed my eyes, held out my arms… and let myself fall over the edge of the cliff.**

"What!" Annabeth said "That's stupid!"

"Wings" Max said shortly

"Oh…"

**The Erasers screamed angrily, the dogs barked hysterically, and then all I could hear was the sound of air rushing past me.**

**It was so dang peaceful, for a second. I smiled.**

"You smile as your falling off a cliff." Nico said incredulously

"That's Max for ya" Iggy said cheerily

**Then, taking a deep breath, I unfurled my wings as hard and fast as I could.**

"See. I'm not falling." Max said

**Thirteen feet across, pale tan with white streaks and some freckly looking brown spots, they caught the air, and I was suddenly yanked upward, hard, as if a parachute had just opened. Yow!**

**Note to self: No sudden unfurling.**

"Yeah, that does hurt" Angel said meditatively

**Wincing, I pushed downward with all my strength, then pulled my wings up, then pushed downward again.**

**Oh, my god, I was flying-just like I'd always dreamed.**

"I think everyone's dreamed of it." Percy said

**The cliff floor, draped in shadow, receded beneath me. I laughed and surged upward, feeling the pull of my muscles, the air whistling through my secondary feathers, the breeze drying the sweat on my face.**

"It must be wonderful" Clarisse said wistfully "What? It must be!" she said defensively.

**I soared up past the cliff edge, past the startled hounds and the furious Erasers.**

**One of them, hairy-faced, fangs dripping, raised his gun. A red dot of light appeared on my torn nightgown. Not today, you jerk, I thought, veering sharply west so the sun would be in his hate-crazed eyes.**

**I'm not going to die today.**

"Let's take a break. It's getting late." Zeus commanded.

"But, milord, we don't have any place to sleep." Jason said

*poof*

"Now you do."

**I want your honest opinion on it. Honestly.**

**Happy 2013 people!**

**R&R&Bubbles**


	3. I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra

**I'm switching between The Angel Experiment and The Lightning Thief for this one. I'm probably going to be updating on the weekends and if I have time during the week. **

**Disclaimer: Why do I have to put this? I'm obviously NOT Rick Riordan….but, fine…I don't own PJO or MR...yet ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher **Thalia read.

"What?"

"You'll find out later."

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one does." Clarisse said

And all the rest of the demigods silently agreed.

The gods couldn't look at them.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe what-ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. **

"Impossible"

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. **

"Sounds lovely." Max said

"It isn't." Travis agreed

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.  
**

"None of us are normal" Angel stated quietly

"Yeah..." Reyna sighed sadly

The gods glanced guiltily around the room.

**But if you re****co****gnize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you. **

**Don't say I didn't warn you. **

"You didn't warn me." Nico said

"Well you thought it was great." Percy smirked "Mythomagic and all..."

Nico blushed, and the demigods laughed.

**My name is Percy Jackson. **

"Oh we totally..."

"Didn't know that..."

"Cause the title..."

"Doesn't have your name..."

"In it or anything."

"Shut UP!" Thalia, Clarisse, Max and Reyna growled, then glanced at each other warily.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes, yes he is."the Stolls chorused, grinning gleefully.

"Don't be mean." Hazel admonished.

"Go Hazel!" Percy smiled

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"Ha! He admits it! Victory!"

Silence.

"What?"

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, **

"Short?" Posedon asked calmly, his stormy eyes betraying the worry he really felt.

"Don't worry Lord Poseidon, he's probably just being overdramatic, like always." Annabeth reassured him.

"I am not!" Percy shouted indignantly.

"Yeah you are!" the demigods shouted back

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and ****Roman stuff. **

"That sounds great." Athena and Annabeth sighed happily

**I know-it sounds like torture. **

"What!"

**Most Yancy field trips were. **

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. **

"Is that...?" Jason asked

"Yeah." Percy replied "Cool, huh?"

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. **

"Sweet!" Leo shouted

**He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. **

"You fall asleep in class!" Athena shrieked

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. **

"Ha! Like that's going to happen." Thalia snorted

**Boy, was I wrong. **

"See!"

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. **

"Woah" Leo and the Stolls muttered

**I wasn't ****aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

"Really, Percy?" Frank asked, shaking his head.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea. **

"We bow down to your awesomeness!" Iggy and Gazzy cried.

"Great." Nico said, "Now his ego is going to be even bigger."

Percy stuck his tongue out at Nico.

"Percy," Annabeth chided, "You're not two."

Nico smirked, and Percy started muttering.

**This trip, I was determined to be good. **

"Not gonna happen, is it?" Max asked

"Nope" Percy said, popping the p.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. **

"You better have kicked her butt Percy." Thalia said grimly.

"Who would eat peanut butter and ketchup in a sandwich? It's so disgusting." Aphrodite said, shuddering and wrinkling her nose.

"Obviously someone does, Mom." Piper said.

******Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. **

"Ah, poor Grover, he seems like such a nice guy, why do the nicest people always get the worse things? I remember this one girl who-mpph"

"Gazzy. Make sure she doesn't take the duct tape off."

"Aye, aye captain!"

Max grumbled but she let it slide.

******He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Nice job blowing your cover, Grover." Thalia muttered

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. **

"Wuss" Ares grumbled

**The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. **

"Come on! That ruins everything!" the Stolls, Hermes, Leo, Iggy and Gazzy cried.

**"I'm going to kill her, " I mumbled. **

"Please do." Clarisse said.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"I do too, but I wouldn't want it thrown at me!" Frank said

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. **

**"That's it. " I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. **

"Come on goat-boy! You're ruining the action!" Ares complained

**"You're already on probation, " he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens. "**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. **

"That doesn't sound good." Leo remarked

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

"You said that before." Athena said "Stop repeating yourself."

"I'm sorry, oh Wise One." Percy said

Annabeth groaned and slapped her hand over Percy's mouth muffling his next words.

He grinned and licked her hand.

"Ewww..." she said and smacked the back of his head.

He smirked and pulled her in to kiss her.

"Oh my gods!" Aphrodite squealed. "They're so adorable!"

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. **

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. **

"Longer," Athena growled

"Leave my son alone, Owl Head."

"Well-"

"Stop!" Hera snapped, "We have guests, and you will all-" she looked around the circle of Olympians "-behave" she finished sinisterly.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, **

"Wow...Seaweed Brain actually wants to pay attention? The world is ending!" Nico asked, looking shocked.

"Nah," Thalia smirked "The world won't end until you stop being emo."

"I'm not emo!"

"Yes you are!" the demigods shouted.

**but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye. **

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. **

"Ew..." Aphrodite said.

**She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. **

"Not suprising" Reyna said dryly.

"She speaks!" Connor shouted.

Swish...

...Thunk.

*Gulp*

Connor turned to look at the still quivering knife embedded to the hilt in the wall right next to his ear.

"She can throw too."

******From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I ****was devil spawn. **

"Sorry Perce, but that's Nico." Thalia said.

"Hey!"

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey, " real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"I hate detention." Travis said thoughtfully

"Don't we all?" Leo said.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right. "**

"Grover..." Annabeth sighed.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. **

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to. **

"Of course it did."

"Thanks Thals."

"No problem."

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. **

**"Mr. Jackson, " he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir. "**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps ****you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. **

"You recognized it?" Nico said in disbelief.

**"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

The Big Three and their sisters winced.

**"Yes, " Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ... "**

**"Well... " I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD!" Zeus roared.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked. **

**"Titan, " I corrected myself. **

"Good."

**"And ... He didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me. **

"It was even more disgusting being in there." Demeter said, shuddering delicately "Cereal, anyone?"

"NO!" Everyone yelled.

******"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans, " I continued, "and the gods won."Some snickers from the group.**

"Why?"

"Kids are weird."

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids. '"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson, " Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!" the Stolls, Leo, Iggy and Gazzy sang.

**"Busted, " Grover muttered.**

"You guys think like a goat." Angel giggled

"Hey!"

**"Shut up, " Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Or horse ears..." Travis said.

Smack.

"Shut up." Annabeth said.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see. " Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of ****course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. **

"...He's optimistic ain't he?" Max said.

**Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses. **

"They always do." Max, Thalia, Reyna, and Artemis said in unison.

"What?" said all the boys in the room.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming. **

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Uh-Cause he has?"

"I didn't know then!"

******"You must learn the answer to my question, " Mr. Brunner told me. **

******"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it. "**

**"Oh. "**

**"What you learn from me, " he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. "**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"Well he has too." Hera said gently.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman per-son who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. **

"Holy crap."

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life.  
**

"C-?" Athena screeched.

**No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those ****names and facts, much less spell them correctly. **

"I get that bro." Leo said, fist-bumping Percy.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. **

Annabeth shrugged, "Probably had."

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. **

"Oh that's nice."

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. **

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. **

"What are you mad about now, Zeus?" Poseidon asked exasperated.

"I don't know..."

**I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. **

"Sounds like you're mad too, Uncle Poseidon." Apollo said.

**I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. **

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. **

"Hate her." Thalia growled, her hand on her bow.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Good idea."

**"Detention?" Grover asked. **

**"Nah, " I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

"That you are most definitely not."

"Shut up."

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Wow, what a sensitive satyr."

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. **

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked ****out again. **

"Sweet"

Smack. "Iggy."

"Ow.."

**I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. **

"See? HE loves his mother." Hera said.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. **

"I want one!" Conner whined.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. **

Thalia gripped her bow tighter, and Annabeth rested her hand on her knife-hilt.

**"Oops. " She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray- painted her face with liquid Cheetos. **

An "Eww." came from all the girls.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper. " But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. **

******I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed ****me!"**

"Cool!" the Stolls, Leo, Iggy and Gazzy screamed.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. **

"Creepy."

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. **

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, **

"Poor little nancy my arse." Thalia mumbled.

**promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc. , etc. , Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

**"I know, " I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks. "**

Hermes and the Stolls groaned, "Never guess your punishment!"

******That wasn't the right thing to say. **

"Duh!"

**"Come with me, " Mrs. Dodds said. **

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her. "**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. **

"Ah, he's so brave!" Hazel said

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. **

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood, " she said. **

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here. "**

**Grover looked at me desperately. **

**"It's okay, man, " I told him. "Thanks for trying. "**

**"Honey, " Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now. "**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

"Not that scary."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Not scary at all."

Percy growled.

"That's not..."

"THALIA!"

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. **

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. **

**I wasn't so sure. **

"Good, you have some kind of intelligence." Athena (of course, duh) said.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Percy smirked.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds. **

"I take it back."

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. **

"Chiron! Gods, he needs to pay more attention."

"Who's Chiron?" Angel asked

"Later, dear."

"Kay."

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. **

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. **

"Wrong."

**But apparently that wasn't the plan. **

"See!"

"Well, no. I'm blind."

"Grrr..."

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. **

**Except for us, the gallery was empty. **

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. **

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it... **

"She probably did."

**"You've been giving us problems, honey, " she said. **

**I did the safe thing. **

"Percy was cautious? Looks Nico is going to stop being emo soon..."

"Hey!"

**I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Why can't you show that respect to the gods?" Reyna asked.

"Well they're..."

"He needs to shut up now, before he says something he'll regret." Annabeth smiled.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. **

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. **

"Ha! Teacher's live to hurt you!"

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am. "**

**Thunder shook the building. **

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson, " Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain. "**

**I didn't know what she was talking about. **

"Of course you don't."

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. **

"Are you sure you aren't my kid?" Hermes asked, a hopeful light in his eyes.

With a huge whoosh Clarisse was suddenly drenched with ice-cold water.

"I'm pretty sure." Percy smirked

"JACKSON!"

"Gotta run."

And so Clarisse chased Percy all over Olympus and Thalia continued reading.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. **

"How is that worse?" Athena demanded.

**"Well?" she demanded. **

**"Ma'am, I don't... "**

**"Your time is up, " she hissed. **

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. **

"You sent a Fury after my son?" Poseidon asked, deadly quiet.

"Um...yes?" Hades said, trying to sound bored.

Whoosh.

"That's c-c-c-old!"

**Then things got even stranger.**

"How? How could they get stranger?" Max asked.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand."What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"That's how." Thalia answered.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wuss"

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"She must really not like honey." Travis said.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. **

"That's what came naturally? How about running for your life? Doesn't that come naturally-mpphh"

"Sorry Max!"

"Keep the duct tape on!"

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

"You relate everything to water don't you?"

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

The demigods and flock shuddered.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or some-thing.**

"Yep, totally. You can believe in magic mushrooms, but you can't believe in monsters and gods."

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt. "**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Grover needs lying lessons." Traivs said.

"When we get back to..."

"Camp, we'll teach him."

**"Not funny, man, " I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson. "**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir, " I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher. "**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?" **

"That's it**." **Thalia said. "Who wants to read next?

"I will" Poseidon said.

* * *

**Told you they'd get longer. Thanks for reading and I h****ope you liked it. **

**-Jade**

**R&R? Please?**


	4. Chapter 2-3-4-5-6 Max Ride

**Me: Hey guys! *ducks behind wall to avoid various objects thrown at me* I'm back!**

**Me: I'm so sorry about the long wait, but-**

**Percy: She doesn't have an excuse. Now give me my cookies!**

**Me: -I kidnapped Percy! And they're MY cookies. You only get some if you do the disclaimer. **

**Percy: You're so mean. Jade-Queen of Fantasy does not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Maximum Ride or ME!**

**Me: Yet.**

**Percy: And she never will. COOKIES!**

**Me: Now who's being mean you're not getting any cookies.**

**Percy: But!**

**Me: *holds up duct tape***

* * *

**Chapter 2 **Poseidon read

**I jolted upright in bed, gasping, my hand over my heart.**

"Scaredey-cat." Clarisse sneared.

"Actually, it's bird, and you would have too, so shut up before I make you" Max said sweetly

Clarisse lunged, and Frank dragged her back.

**I couldn't help checking my nightgown. No red laser dot. No bullet holes. I fell back on my bed, limp with relief.**

**Geez, I hated that dream. It was always the same: running away from the School, being chased by Erasers and dogs, me falling off a cliff, then suddenly whoosh, wings, flying, escaping. I always woke up feeling a second away from death.**

"Ouch"

**Note to self: Give subconscious a pep talk re: better dreams.**

"You can do that?" Connor asked, awed.

"No" Thalia sighed "You can't"

"But it'd be so cool!"

"No"

"But, why?"

"Thalia" Max asked

"Yeah"

Max tossed something that shone silver to her. "Have fun"

Thalia grinned and pounced on Connor. Travis scrambled away. Connor gave a muffled yelp and went silent.

Thalia turned to Max, grinning, "Thanks, girl"

Max grinned back.

Percy groaned "Now there's two of em"

Thalia and Max started to say something but Poseidon cut them off.

**It was chilly, but I forced myself out of my cozy bed. I threw on clean sweats-amazingly, Nudge had put the laundry away.**

"What do you mean suddenly?! I do it all the-mpff"

"Silence is golden..." Max started, slapping Thalia a high-five

"...but ductape is silver" Thalia finished

**Everyone else was still asleep: I could have a few minutes of peace and quiet, get a jump on the day.**

"Why would you want to jump on the day?" Gazzy and Travis asked

*cue mass facepalm*

**I glanced out the hall windows on the way to the kitchen. I loved this view: the morning sunlight breaking over the crest of the mountains, the clear sky, the deep shadows, the fact that I could see no sign of any other people.**

**We were high on a mountain, safe, just me and my family.**

"Nowhere is safe" Nico said quietly

Everyone was silent**.**

**Our house was shaped like a letter E turned on its side. The bars of the E were cantilevered on stilts out over a steep canyon, so if I looked out a window, I felt like I was floating. On a "cool" scale from one to ten, this house was an easy fifteen.**

"I miss it" Angel said sadly

"I know sweetie" Max said as Fang ruffled her hair, "I know."

**Here, my family and I could be ourselves. Here, we could live free. I mean literally free, as in, not in cages.**

"Cages" Hera shuddered

Leo, Piper and Jason grimaced

**Long story. More on that later.**

**And of course here's the best part: no grown-ups. When we first moved here, Jeb Batchelder had taken care of us, like a dad. He'd saved us. None of us had parents, but Jeb had come as close as possible.**

**Two years ago, he'd disappeared. I knew he was dead, we all did, but we didn't talk about it. Now we were on our own.**

"Know how that feels" Annabeth muttered. The demigods nodded.

**Yep, no one telling us what to do, what to eat, when to go to bed. Well, except me. I'm the oldest, so I try to keep things running as best I can. It's a hard, thankless job, but someone has to do it.**

"Tell me about it" Hera glared at her family

**We don't go to school, either, so thank God for the Internet, because otherwise we wouldn't know nothin'. But no schools, no doctors, no social workers knocking on our door. It's simple: If no one knows about us, we stay alive.**

**I was rustling around for food in the kitchen when I heard sleepy shuffling behind me.**

**"Mornin, Max."**

"Intruder" Iggy yelled

"Iggy?"

"Yeah"

"Shut up or you'll get ductaped too"

"Why do they call it ductape, I mean-Mffpt"

"3 down"

**Chapter 3**

**"Morning, Gazzy," I said as the heavy-lidded eight-year-old slumped at the table. I rubbed his back and dropped a kiss on his head. He'd been the Gasman ever since he was a baby. What can I say? The child has something funky with his digestive system. A word to the wise: Stay upwind.**

Everyone around Gazzy slowly started to inch away.

**The Gasman blinked up at me, his gorgeous blue eyes round and trusting. "What's for breakfast?" he asked, sitting up. His fine blond hair stuck up all over his head, reminding me of a fledgling's downy feathers.**

"Awwwwwwwwwww" Aphrodite cooed

**"Um, it's a surprise," I said, since I had no idea.**

"Of course not" Traivs scoffed "Cause you're the leader and all"

Riiiippp.

"I'll be quiet" he said as he shrank away from Thalia.

**"I'll pour juice," the Gasman offered, and my heart swelled. He was a sweet, sweet kid, and so was his little sister. He and six-year-old Angel were the only blood siblings among us, but we were all a family anyway.**

"Awwwwwwww" Aphrodite and Hera sighed

**Soon Iggy, tall and pale, slouched into the kitchen. Eyes closed, he fell onto our beat-up couch with perfect aim. The only time he has trouble being blind is when one of us forgets and moves furniture or something.**

"Move the furniture" Hermes and Travis chanted

**"Hey, Ig, rise and shine," I said.**

**"Bite me," he mumbled sleepily.**

"Um, no"

**"Fine," I said. "Miss breakfast."**

**I was looking in the fridge with naive hope-maybe the food fairies had come-**

"Really Max? There are no food fairies" Leo scolded, then ducked and the pot smashed against the wall behind him.

**when the back of my neck prickled. I straightened quickly and spun around.**

**"Will you quit that?" I said.**

**Fang always appeared silently like that, out of nowhere, like a dark shadow come to life. He regarded me calmly, dressed and alert, his dark, overlong hair brushed back. He was four months younger than me but already four inches taller. "Quit what?" he asked calmly. "Breathing?"**

"Yeah, Fang, quit breathing" Max said, leaning against him and yawning. He sighed and slid his arm around her. Aphrodite almost squealed but with a look from Hestia she shut up.

**I rolled my eyes. "You know what."**

**With a grunt, Iggy staggered upright. "I'll make eggs," he announced. I guess if I were more of a fembot, it would bother me that a blind guy six months younger than I am could cook better than I could.**

The demigods and Apollo and Hermes broke out into laughter.

**But I'm not. So it didn't.**

Laughing harder.

**I surveyed the kitchen. Breakfast was well under way. "Fang? You set the table. I'll go get Nudge and Angel."**

**The two girls shared the last small bedroom. I pushed the door open to find eleven-year-old Nudge asleep, tangled up in her covers. She was barely recognizable with her mouth shut, I thought wryly. When she was awake, we called it the Nudge Channel: all Nudge, all the time.**

Nudge glared above her ductape muzzle.

**"Hey, sweetie, up and at 'em," I said, gently shaking her shoulder. "Breakfast in ten."**

**Nudge blinked, her brown eyes struggling to focus on me. "Wha' ?" she mumbled.**

**"Another day," I said. "Get up and face it."**

**Groaning, Nudge levered herself into a crumpled but technically upright position.**

"See Percy, technicalities do matter." Annabeth said looking up from his shoulder

**Across the room, a thin curtain concealed one corner. Angel always liked small cozy spaces. Her bed, tucked behind the curtain, was like a nest-full of stuffed animals, books, most of her clothes. I smiled and pulled the curtain back.**

**"Hey, you're already dressed," I said, leaning over to hug her.**

**"Hi, Max," Angel said, tugging her blond curls out of her collar. "Can you do my buttons?"**

**"Yep." I turned her around and started doing her up.**

**I'd never told the others, but I just loved, loved, loved Angel. Maybe because I'd been taking care of her practically since she was a baby. Maybe because she was just so incredibly sweet and loving herself.**

"Max!"Gazzy whined "That's not fair!"

Angel stuck her tongue out at him from her position on Max's lap

**"Maybe because I'm like your little girl," said Angel, turning around to look at me. "But don't worry, Max. I won't tell anybody. Besides, I love you best too." She threw her skinny arms around my neck and planted a somewhat sticky kiss on my cheek. I hugged her back, hard. Oh, yeah-that's another special thing about Angel.**

**She can read minds.**

"What?" several people screamed

"Yep, and breathe underwater, and change my appearance. Max and Fang can breathe underwater too. Max can fly superfast, Fang can turn invisible if he sits still long enough, Nudge can attract metal, Iggy can feel colors, Gazzy has super-atomic farts and can mimic voices perfectly, and they both love blowing stuff up." Angel said, pointing to each as she said them.

Weird and awkward silence.

**Chapter 4**

**"I want to go pick strawberries today," Angel said firmly, scooping up a forkful of scrambled eggs. "They're ripe now."**

**"Okay, Angel, I'll go with you," said the Gasman. Just then he let rip one of his unfortunate occurrences and giggled.**

"Ewwwwww" squealed the majority of the girls

**"Oh, jeez, Gazzy," I said disapprovingly.**

**"Gas… mask!" Iggy choked out, grasping his neck and pretending to asphyxiate.**

"What?" Travis asked

"Suffocate" Athena and Annabeth sighed

**"I'm done," Fang said, getting up quickly and taking his plate to the sink.**

**"Sorry," the Gasman said automatically, but he kept eating.**

**"Yeah, Angel," said Nudge. "I think the fresh air would do us all good. I'll go too."**

**"We'll all go," I said.**

**Outside, it was beautiful, clear and cloudless, with the first real heat of May. We carried buckets and baskets as Angel led us to a huge patch of wild strawberries.**

**She held my hand. "If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes," she said happily.**

**"Yeah, that'll be the day, when Max makes a cake," I heard Iggy say. "I'll make it, Angel."**

**I whirled. "Oh, thank you!" I exclaimed. "Okay, I'm not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butt, and don't you forget it!"**

**Iggy was laughing, holding up his hands in denial. Nudge was trying not to laugh, even Fang was grinning, and the Gasman looked… mischievous.**

"What?" Leo, Apollo, Hermes, Ares, and Travis asked

**"Was that you?" I asked Gazzy.**

"Oh..."

**He grinned and shrugged, trying not to look too pleased with himself. The Gasman had been about three when I realized he could mimic just about any sound or voice. I'd lost count of how many times Iggy and Fang had almost come to blows over stuff Gazzy had said in their voices. It was a dark gift, and he wielded it happily.**

Gazzy opened his mouth

"Mpfff"

"The Ductape Team has struck again" Leo said dramatically

**It was just another weird ability-most of us had them. Whatever they were, they sure made life more interesting.**

**Next to me, Angel froze and screamed.**

**Startled, I stared down at her, and in the next second, men with wolfish muzzles, huge canines, and reddish, glinting eyes dropped out of the sky like spiders. Erasers! And it wasn't a dream.**

"Hate Erasers" Max mumbled

**Chapter 5**

**There was no time to think. Jeb had trained us not to think-just to act. **

"Cough-Clarisse-Cough"Travis said.

Clarisse glared

**I launched myself at an Eraser, spinning and planting a hard, roundhouse kick in his barrel chest. His breath went oof, and the odor was just awful, like raw sewage left out in the hot sun.**

"Finally! Some action!" Ares yelled...and got whacked upside the head with Aphrodtite's purse

**After that, it was like a movie, a bunch of superimposed images that hardly seemed real. I landed another blow, then an Eraser punched me so hard that my head snapped around and I felt a burst of blood in my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang holding his own against an Eraser-until two more ganged up on him, and he went down under flailing clawed hands.**

**Iggy was still upright, but one eye was already swelling shut.**

**Beyond shock, I scrambled to my feet, then saw the Gasman out cold, lying facedown on the ground.**

**I leaped toward him, only to be grabbed again. Two Erasers pinned my arms behind my back. Another leaned in, his reddish eyes glinting with excitement, his jaw fully morphed out and snoutlike. He pulled back his hand and curled it into a fist. Then he brought it in hard, punching me in the stomach. An unbelievable pain exploded inside me, and I doubled over, dropping like a stone.**

**Dimly, I heard Angel screaming and Nudge crying.**

"Not going good"Percy muttered

"Thank you, Captain Obvious" Thalia and Max chorused

**Get up! I told myself, trying to suck in air. Get up!**

"Yeah wimp" Another smack.

**As weird mutant kids, we're much, much stronger than regular grown-up humans. But Erasers aren't regular grown-up humans, and they outnumbered us as well. We were dog meat. I struggled to my hands and knees, trying not to retch.**

**I staggered to my feet, bloodlust in my eyes, ready to kill. Two Erasers held Nudge's hands and feet. They swung her hard, and she went sailing, hitting her head against a tree. I heard a small pained cry, and then she lay crumpled among the pine needles.**

"Ouch"

**With a hoarse, blood-muffled shout, I ran up and clapped my cupped palms around an Eraser's furry ears. He shrieked as his eardrums popped, and he fell to his knees.**

"Even worse"

**"Max!" Angel screamed, high-pitched and terrified, and I spun around. An Eraser had her by the arms, and I raced forward, jumping over Iggy, who now lay unconscious. Two Erasers fell on me, knocking me down, one pressing a heavy knee into my chest. I wheezed and struggled, and one of them cuffed my face hard, his ragged claws digging deep welts in my cheek.**

**Dizzily, I fell back, the two Erasers pinning me, and with uncomprehending horror I saw three other Erasers stuffing Angel, my baby, into a rough sack. She was crying and screaming, and one of them hit her.**

**Frantically struggling, I tried to scream but could make only a hoarse, choked cry. "Get off me, you stupid, freaking-" I choked, but I was slammed back again.**

**An Eraser leaned over me, smiling horribly.**

**"Max," he said, and my stomach clenched-did I know him? "Good to see you again," he went on conversationally. "You look like crap. You always acted so much better than everyone else, so this cheers me up."**

**"Who are you?" I gasped, feeling cold at the center of my being.**

**The Eraser grinned, his long, sharp teeth barely fitting in his jaw. "You don't recognize me? I guess I've grown some."**

**My eyes went wide with sudden, horrified recognition.**

**"Ari," I whispered, and he laughed like a mad person. Then he stood up. I saw his huge, black boot come at my head, felt my head jerk to one side, and everything went black.**

**My last thought was disbelief: Ari was Jeb's son. They'd made him into an Eraser. He was seven years old.**

Aphrodite's face was white.

**Chapter 6**

**"Max?" The Gasman's voice was very young and very scared.**

**I heard a horrible, low moan, then realized it had come from me.**

**The Gasman and Fang were leaning over me, concerned expressions on their bruised, bloodied faces.**

**"I'm okay," I croaked, having no idea if I was or not. Memory came rushing back, and I tried to sit up. "Where's Angel?" My voice was strained.**

**Fang's dark eyes met mine. "She's gone. They took her."**

**I thought I might faint again. I remembered being nine years old, looking out the wired-glass lab window, watching the Erasers in the semidarkness. The whitecoats had released chimpanzees onto the School grounds and let newly made Erasers loose after them. Teaching them how to hunt.**

"That's barbaric!"

**The sounds of the chimpanzees screeching in terror and pain still echoed in my mind.**

**That was who had Angel now.**

**Rage overwhelmed me-why couldn't they have taken me instead? Why take a tiny kid? Maybe I would have had a chance-maybe.**

**Shakily, I got to my feet. My head was spinning, and I had to lean against Fang, hating my weakness. "We've got to get her," I said urgently, trying to stay upright. "We've got to get her before they-" Horror-filled images flashed through my mind-Angel being chased, being hurt, being killed. I gulped, shutting them down.**

Angel whimpered

**"Check in, guys-are you up for a chase?" I examined the four of them. They looked like they'd been stuffed into a blender set on "chop."**

Most people winced.

**"Yes," Nudge said in a tear-choked voice.**

**"I'm up," said Iggy, a split lip making his voice thick.**

**The Gasman nodded solemnly at me.**

"Awwwwww" Aphrodite said softly

**To my horror, hot tears momentarily blurred my vision. I wiped them away with the back of one hand and called on fury to keep me going.**

**Just then Iggy cocked his head slightly. It was a clue for me to start listening intently. Then I heard it too: a faint engine noise.**

**"There!" Iggy said, pointing.**

**The five of us ran stiffly and clumsily toward the sound. A hundred yards through the woods brought us to a sharp drop-off maybe fifty feet above an old, unused logging road.**

**Then I saw it: a black Humvee, dull with dust and mud, bumping roughly over the unpaved road. My heart pounded. I knew, just knew, that my little one, my Angel, was inside. And she was on her way to a place where death came as a blessing.**

**It wasn't going to happen, not while I was breathing.**

**"Let's get her!" I cried, then backed up about ten feet. The others scurried out of my way as I ran to the edge and simply jumped out into space.**

**I started to fall toward the road.**

**Then I unfurled my wings, fast, catching the wind.**

**And I began to fly.**

"What's it like?" asked Piper

"Wonderful" Max answered "The best thing in the world."

* * *

**Me: It was a long chapter! *peeks around shelter* The coast is clear! *Smack* Stupid tomato.**

**Percy: You deserve that for keeping me here, so HAH!**

**Me: Hey! I did that all in *checks clock* 3 hours. **

**Percy: ...And...?**

**Me: Oh go eat a cookie. *throws plate likea frisbee***

**Percy: *catches said plate in his teeth and walks away***

**Me: I worry about him...Anyway, Review?**

**Percy: MAX STOLE MY COOKIES! *runs and tackles Max, they start fighting***

**Me: *sigh* Great now they're both gonna be on sugar highs...**

**Review for my sanity?**


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